It still wasn't idling right.. and it was popping when I gave it gas. It acted like a vacuum leak so I decided to pull the carb off again and double check everything.
I hadn't pulled the insulator/spacer that fits between the head and carb. This time I did. ^&@*! Some bonehead put it on backwards and left an o-ring out of it. Since one side is much smaller than the other it was basically a huge vacuum leak.
I put an o-ring in and now the thing purrs at idle and revs quickly. It starts immediately..
This certainly adds to the mystery.. why would somebody (who isn't very mechanically inclined) take the carb off? How long was it like this? .... oh well, it's fun bringing something like this back to life.
CA78 DreamWelcomeNC, you are suffering the same malady a lot of us are. It's called the "P.O."(previous owner) Blues. When these bikes came out a lot of people owned them that had no idea how a motorcycle works....D
Time for an update...
I rode it around the block a few times yesterday and put about 3 miles on it. It was extremely hard to get started, but once started it ran ok and would restart with just a blip of the starter. It shifted nicely, but I did get the issue of not being able to get to neutral once I stopped (I haven't adjusted the clutch properly yet and idle was high), it rode pretty well, and had decent power. I've applied for a title through bond and hopefully will get the title in about a month. There's a chance the state will bounce it back and tell me to get the PO to apply since he should have done that. ugh. As far as issues.. Just about everything I've taken apart I've found something that a PO put together wrong or lost pieces. The steering damper, horn, clutch arm, carb, petcock, front suspension, etc.. etc... for example - a PO had pulled the right case cover off and wound the kickstarter spring the wrong way for preload. THEN they left the 5/16" ball (96211-10000) out of the clutch lifter so the clutch lifter was taking the force of the clutch rod and the clutch was so far out of adjustment the clutch lifter was hitting the sprocket and getting some nasty wear. UGH! I have to take every single thing apart and check to make sure it's assembled correctly and all the parts are there. Somewhere there's a nice box of bolts and nuts for this thing. I'm pretty sure the kickstarter pawl is worn (might be from the preload on the kickstarter being backwards?) because it slips sometimes when kicked and it's not the splines. The front brakes had zero wear on them.. no grooves or wear in the brake drum at all and nice thick "hm" shoes (and what looked like 40 yr old grease, but the front rim is chrome and the rear is painted silver. No telling if the wheels and hubs are original to the bike or not, and it's very possible it was owned by someone who only used the rear brake. After looking at wear on other parts I'm guessing 1,000 miles or less on the engine. A friend who has restored a few old hondas looked at it and said 3,000. Either way, it's low miles. The good news is it runs pretty good and I've got almost all the parts needed to put it back on the road. I'm feeling pretty good about the odds of being able to rescue this thing. another update..
It's totally apart, and body parts are ready to go to the painter in the next day or so. But the big news is I finally got the title back from the state today! It's a clean title (no mention of it being "salvage" or anything like that). So a bike that probably would have been parted out will soon be back on the road. I'm pretty stoked about rescuing this thing. A few observations on disassembly.. the rear brake drum also showed almost no wear at all and had nice thick "hm" shoes. All wear points show almost no wear.. but... the front sprocket is worn. It's a mystery. Maybe someone rode it without oiling the chain then only replaced the rear sprocket and chain?? Maybe someone took it all apart and lost the sprocket and put a used one on? Who knows. photo is the way it looked when I pulled it off.. no cleaning on it.
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